XLR Cable Recommendation

I recommend getting a bit longer than what you think you’re going to need.

There have been times where I’ve moved my studio around and realized my cables were too short now!

You’ll read people recommend getting the shortest cable for the job because of less noise..

But in my opinion, the convenience of having an extra long cable is way worth your time rather than caring about such a small detail.

The Purpose of XLR, TRS, and TS Cables

I’ll quickly state what each type of connector/cable is for:

TS – Typically for instruments.. such as guitars and keyboards. This means the signal is unbalanced, which many of these instruments are because of the price of manufacturing balanced input/output ports on gear.

TRS – Mostly used for connecting speakers and other types of hardware around the studio.

XLR – Most often used for microphones, but also very popular for speakers and hardware too, as most speakers/hardware allow for both TRS and XLR connections!

What about 1/4″ and 1/8″ Jacks?

From what I’ve seen, 1/4″ jacks are more robust and common in the audio world.

1/8″ jacks, or 3.5mm (same thing), are typically for headphones because they plug into smaller devices like iPods etc.

If you were to use an adapter from 1/8″ up to 1/4″ sound quality shouldn’t be degraded or anything!

Conclusion

Audio cables are super confusing because of the terminology around the internet.

Some people say stereo and mono for balanced and unbalanced cables.. but again this is confusing.

If you send a stereo signal down a balanced cable.. you do not have a balanced signal because you’re not doing the phase cancellation rejection of noise.

(You have different audio on both wires on headphones, which creates stereo.)